Charles Wilson: What Happens When Bishops Are Found Wanting?
Here’s a canon law article from the July 31, 2008 Christifidelis, a publication of The Saint Joseph Foundation. Digital version is courtesy of Catholic Culture.
What Happens When Bishops Are Found Wanting?
by Charles M. Wilson
More than a few faithful Catholics perhaps would be tempted to answer this question with one word, “nothing.” And the members of the Saint Joseph Foundation’s professional staff, with combined experience of approximately fifty years, might well sympathize. But I would also point out that while “nothing” might apply to many of the cases that we have seen it cannot be applied to all. To say that bishops are never called to account would be incorrect. Be that as it may, however, the harm done to souls by inept or mean-spirited bishops is beyond human reckoning and the existing evidence, scant though it may be, indicates that far too little has been done to repair the damage.
In the aftermath of the eruption of the sexual abuse crisis in 2002, there has been no lack of criticism of the U.S. bishops by the secular media. Many of the Catholic faithful believe as well that their bishops’ handling of sexual abuse complaints has been negligent or even-reckless.1 But this article is not about the obvious shortcomings displayed by the American bishops in dealing with sexually abusive clerics. In this article, my key concern is about what has happened — or not happened — whenever there has been good reason to believe that diocesan bishops have fallen short of fulfilling their responsibilities to teach and to defend the faith (canon 386), to foster the common discipline of the Church (c. 392) and to administer the temporal goods of the Church in accord with the norms of law (canon 393).
As revolting and destructive as the sexual abuse issue is, it is the exercise of ecclesiastical office with respect to upholding the teaching and laws of the Church that is more closely related to the work of the Saint Joseph Foundation. After all, in almost twenty-four years of existence, the Foundation has received only a handful of complaints related to sexual abuse, while we have received thousands of complaints alleging deficient or erroneous teaching, violations of liturgical norms and the abusive exercise of the ministry of governance. Using the very limited amount of data available, I will try here to give our readers some idea of what has happened whenever bishops’ performance in these areas has been called into question.
What Does the Law Provide?
Related posts
Fr. Benedict Groeschel on The Many Facets of the Abuse Crisis: How’d We Get Into This Unholy Mess?
I’ve been focusing on the fallout of the abuse crisis as it affects priests removed from ministry without due process. For perspective, let’s go back six years when the earthquake of clerical abuse stories destabilized the local Church in 2002.
At that time, Fr. Benedict Groeschel taped an emergency response called An Urgent Appeal in three parts. Father addressed:
- Horrific sexual crimes perpetrated by priests and family members
- Homosexual activism and lifestyle versus same-sex attraction
- Legally-defined pedophilia as it relates to homosexuality
- Shell shocked bishops responding out of cowardice and weariness
- Wasted suffering
- Wake up calls for the reform of the renewal
- How the mainstream media and Hitler shared the same modus operandi for anti-Catholic propaganda
- How the media endeavors to destroy Catholic influence on life issues: abortion, homosexual marriage, euthanasia, etc., during the abuse crisis.
- Clerical psychopaths
- How left wing dissidents are exploiting the crisis to inject their agenda: married priests, women priests, homosexual “marriage,” abolishing celibacy, etc.
- How right wing dissidents are buying the media screed about priests hook, line and sinker.
- Warning that priests taken off the job are accused not automatically guilty
Six years ago, Fr. Groeschel predicted what is happening to “chartered” priests today. After listening, spend some time and meditate on what has come to pass during the past five years. Each part of An Urgent Appeal is 30 minutes long:
An Urgent Appeal Part One
An Urgent Appeal Part Two
An Urgent Appeal Part Three
Related posts
The Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church: Turning Defeat into Victory
In her writings, Alice von Hildebrand frequently discusses how, with the intercession of Mary, we can turn defeat into victory.
I often wondered how abuse survivors quietly went on their way to authentic healing after suffering the pain of unimaginable betrayal. These accounts are hard to find in the mainstream media or on the pages of well-known victim advocacy sites. Here is a blog post from one such person.
True Healing from Abuse Starts from the Heart by John Everett
Another casualty of the abuse crisis in the Church is the accused priest thrown into crisis resulting from the zero-tolerance policies in many dioceses. Fr. Arthur Joseph chronicles his day-to-day existence while on administrative leave without due process. He not only survives but thrives with the grace of God and the intercession of our Lady.
Fr. Joseph most clearly describes what it’s like in his Living in the Catholic Gitmo series of posts, but the rest of his archived posts also allow us to witness the action of the Holy Spirit changing heart-breaking defeat into victory in his soul. I am only a third of the way through his archives, but I feel as though I need to slow down and mediate on Father’s words.
Even more edifying is to read John Everett’s letter to Rome defending those priests discarded in the name of zero-tolerance.
Both John and Fr. Joseph reference the Servant of God Catherine Doherty and her Madonna House apostolate. More on that next time because you have plenty to unpack with this post.
